Lake watch. People.

Apple Tree Branches Out Under Artistic Director

May 03, 1993|By Linda Lipp.

During the last 10 years, Highland Park's Apple Tree Theater has provoked, enlightened and entertained audiences by taking chances and tackling projects that most suburban theaters have been afraid or unwilling to attempt.

Apple Tree insiders say that has happened because of one person: founder and artistic director Eileen Boevers.

"She's completely responsible for our success because she's the one who puts it all together," said Chicagoan Ross Lehman, a member of Apple Tree's artistic board. "Eileen has a good eye for ability, for knowing what will work. She doesn't try to second-guess audiences. We've found that what works best ultimately is to do what we want and hope the audience will like it."

Lehman is one of several performers who will entertain Monday at the 10th anniversary benefit at Marriott's Lincolnshire Theater. Also among those who will re-create roles from Apple Tree productions is Wilmette actress Barbara Rosin, who has known Boevers since both went to Senn High School in Chicago.

"Even then she was a go-getter and into theater," Rosin recalled.

Boevers went on to get bachelor's and master's degrees in theater education and taught high school for seven years. She began teaching private students at home after moving to Highland Park. About 20 years ago, she opened the Eileen Boevers Performing Arts Studio. It was in conjunction with instructors at the studio that Boevers first attempted community theater.

"We were doing shows all over the place, so we were using my home as a mailing address. I lived on Apple Tree and so that became the name of the theater," Boevers recalled.

Those amateur productions, Boevers said, didn't live up to her high standards.

"You have an artistic vision that you want to fulfill, and we weren't doing that," she said.

Ten years ago, when Steppenwolf Theater moved downtown, vacating its space at Highland Park's Immaculate Conception School, Boevers saw her chance. Apple Tree moved into the school and was reborn as a professional, although not-for-profit, theater.

"In retrospect, keeping the name might have been a mistake because it took us a long time to convince people that we were not the same," Boevers reflected. "Being out in the suburbs was also a problem in getting the kind of media coverage and the kind of respect we wanted."

By offering actors like Lehman and Rosin a chance to do roles they might not be able to do elsewhere, Boevers was able to attract the type of talent she wanted to star in those early productions.

"We used to have to pull teeth to get supporting players to come out from the city, though, until our reputation spread," Boevers said.

From the beginning, Boevers also was determined to keep Apple Tree from being typecast as a theater that stuck to safe, conventional, sure-fire productions. The Apple Tree actors did musicals, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and original works by budding playwrights like Lehman.

"We wanted to do the full spectrum. We wanted to do it all. We didn't want to be pigeon-holed," Boevers said.

"I think people have the wrong idea about suburban audiences. They don't like to be pandered to. There's a lot of sophistication out here, and the audiences are grateful to see these works without having to go downtown. I think that the success of Apple Tree is a result of not underestimating the audiences."

Lehman, who parlayed his first acting role at Apple Tree into an expanded career as a director and playwright, credited Boevers for helping to shape his career.

"Eileen really got me started in a lot of different things I might not have done otherwise," he said.

In the next 10 years, Boevers hopes to take Apple Tree in new directions, expanding the theater offerings for young audiences and doing productions in conjunction with downtown theater groups. She also would like to move out of the second-floor strip mall space that the theater has occupied since the school was scheduled for demolition five years ago. Money is always tight, however.

"It's always a struggle. It's always touch-and-go whether we will be here tomorrow," she said.